Religious Abuse in Politics: Implications for Nigerian Democracy

The wave of religious intolerance has numerous adverse effects on Nigeria. Ironically, Islam and Christianity which are the dominant religions in Nigeria have a common cosmology. Both aspire towards achieving salvation by the gospel of love, peace and unity, and they project strict monotheism. But the opposite is the case. Very often, they are polarized and vehemently opposed to each other that sometimes the result is open confrontation. Most Nigerian politicians capitalized on this and use religion to achieve their selfish ends by aligning with any of the dominant religion to gain fame and power. This paper examines the wrong use of religion in politics and its implications for Nigerian democracy. The study employed qualitative research design in which data were sourced through books and journals. The work relies strictly on secondary sources of data collection and employed descriptive and analytical methods in unveiling the remote cause, consequences and remedy for sustainable democracy in Nigeria. The study found out that politicians are the cause of religious crises in Nigeria which led to hunger and establishment of IDP camps. The study recommends among others that leaders of these two dominant religions namely Christianity and Islam should discourage politicians from using religion in the negative way and encourage dialogue for peaceful and sustainable democracy in Nigeria